Autonomous driving
Creating trust with virtual eyes
Creating trust in autonomous vehicles with virtual eyes: This is the aim of a new Jaguar Land Rover research project. Self-driving driving cocoons - known as pods - are equipped with large displays that look and behave like eyes.
Studies have shown that 63% of pedestrians are concerned about whether they will be able to cross the road safely in the future. It is therefore important to research whether and how people's confidence in self-driving cars can be increased. Cognitive psychologists provide valuable insights into how the behavior of the vehicles influences the degree of human trust in the new technology.
One possible tool in this context is virtual eyes. They ensure that the self-driving pods have a kind of friendly face. This is because pedestrians usually make eye contact with the driver of an approaching car before entering the road. The virtual eyes can be used to find out how much information future autonomous vehicles will have to share with their users and pedestrians in order for people to trust the technology.
As part of a research project, the intelligent pods move autonomously within a scenery modeled on the streetscape of Coventry, so that the behavior of pedestrians crossing the street can be analyzed realistically. Development engineers from Jaguar Land Rover's Future Mobility department developed the virtual eyes. The pods use them to recognize pedestrians and then appear to look directly at them. This signals to the pedestrian that they have been registered by the vehicle and that the technology is responding accordingly.
The engineers measure the confidence level before and after the pod has made eye contact. This shows whether the vehicle has built up enough trust for the pedestrian to believe it will stop.
As part of the research project, the interaction with the self-driving pods, which were produced by Aurrigo, a Jaguar Land Rover partner in the UK Autodrive consortium, was examined in more than 500 test subjects.
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